As the world seems to tumble ceaselessly towards the breakout of nuclear war and man's inhumanity to man becomes ever more in evidence, perhaps its best to contact those you love, construct some sort of bunker and ponder the futility of it all. But first, let's reflect on the week in news.
1) A sting in the tail
Things have been...erm...interesting for the campaigners seeking to address changes to the state pension which they claim were unfair.
This week the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) movement lost the legal support of law firm Bindmans, due to an internal dispute.
It comes after several members of the Waspi board left due to "irreconcilable differences" and the campaign is now in dispute after the former directors lodged a formal objection to the new leadership, meaning Bindmans had to down tools due to potential conflicts of interest.
In the meantime work has continued to address the issue Waspi is campaigning about - that changes to the state pension age for women were implemented faster than promised and with little or no notice.
A group of MPs is producing a report, based on a survey of several women's groups, including the Waspi campaign, who claim they have been severely disadvantaged.
2) Down to business
Some advisers may wonder what the Financial Conduct Authority does all day. Meanwhile other advisers may think the FCA does too much.
Either way, this week the FCA said what it would be doing (whether it's nothing or everything), when it published its business plan for 2018/19.
In 2018/19 the FCA will carry out a programme of work to tackle incidences of consumers entering into high-risk investments which are unsuitable for their needs to identify problems.
The regulator said it also planned to publish research that will look at the rise of passive management in the UK and will explore the impact on core aspects of financial market performance such as corporate governance, market efficiency and financial stability.
The FCA will publish the interim report of its Mortgage Market Study in Q2 of 2018, setting out its findings and inviting views on any potential remedies.
3) Annuity providers say 'armageddon outta here'
Three years on from the introduction of pension freedoms rules which blew a hole in the annuity market, the latest data published this week revealed the extent of the UK's retirement revolution.
When pension freedoms gave people the right to take the cash from their pension pot at age 55 and spend it in any way they like on 6 April 2015, many foresaw the end of the traditional annuity market.
And, FCA data has shown annuity sales slumped in the immediate aftermath of the reforms as drawdown sales spiked.
Before pension freedom, annuity sales were running at about 350,000 a year, whereas today they stand at about 80,000 a year.
According to data from Hargreaves Lansdown, only Canada Life, Aviva, Legal & General, Just, Scottish Widows and Hodge Lifetime are currently offering annuities.
Reliance Mutual, Friends Life, Partnership Assurance, Prudential, Aegon, Standard Life, LV and Retirement Advantage have all left although some of these exits were the result of mergers, for instance Friends Life merged with Aviva, while Partnership Assurance merged with Just Retirement.
4) See you in court
The Miller family must be concerned about their lawyer's financial wellbeing, because Alan Miller, founder of SCM Direct, is so disappointed with the FCA's latest remedies to the issue of fund fees and charges that he is looking into bringing a judicial review against the regulator.
In 2016 his wife Gina successfully took the government to court over the issue of whether there would need to be a vote in Parliament to trigger the process for Britain leaving the European Union.
Mr Miller said the regulator's latest response to the issue of fund manager charges "achieves nothing".
He is also a co-founder of the True and Fair campaign, which aims to highlight what it perceives to be a lack of transparency around the charges levied by fund houses.
5) HMRC on the hunt
An HMRC drive to crackdown on tax avoidance could see advisers challenged if they set up offshore tax entities for clients.
The Revenue wants to prevent UK traders and professionals from avoiding tax by arranging for their UK business profits to accrue in entities resident in territories with a nil or low tax rate.
The new measures, which could impact up to 10,000 wealthy individuals, are expected to bring in up to £50m a year in tax receipts.
Examples of the types of arrangements HMRC will target include UK residents who move their profits to an offshore vehicle, which is paid from the individual’s earnings because of a service contract or because it invests in a partnership through which the individual trades and is entitled to a return.
damian.fantato@ft.com
